Today was the first day of the court sessions of what might be the most important trial for press freedom in our lifetime, the case of Julian Assange. As most of you will be aware, this case involves an independent journalist who is at risk of being extradited from the United Kingdom towards the United States, a country that he exposed on the Wikileaks website. That website published about war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, and for that reason they want to put him in jail for up to 175 years.
Earlier this year the British judge ruled against extradition, for medical reasons. But the Americans were allowed to appeal. And those appeal hearings are today and tomorrow.
I wrote an article on my blog about this a while ago, that details the case and why those in power are so obsessed with getting rid of Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
So today there was a full page advert in the Times, the IFJ (representing 600.000 journalists around the world) called for Julian Assange's immediate release. Let that be a clear message that we won't negotiate about our press freedom.
You can find that here:
http://marklubbers.com/a-society-of-fear-the-case-of-julian-assange-deep-dive/
Later on I will write a new article with more details about this case, but to get direct updates of what's going on in the courts, I suggest you follow these journalists on Twitter:
There were protests at the court as well:
My brother Anon Media UK is there to cover those boots on the ground:
https://twitter.com/CensoredLubbers/status/1453291003654324225
- CensoredLubbers
Source Tweet:
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1453307941025615876
- wikileaks
So today the Americans got to present their case, tomorrow it will be Team Assange.
A skeleton of the argument is available here, so you know what to expect:
https://defend.wikileaks.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Respondents_Skeleton_Argument_vfinal.pdf
To be continued.